A storm of innovation is engulfing businesses today in the form of cloud technology. It’s not a matter of resisting the wave anymore; there is a climate of anticipation regarding how the cloud systems will be of use to companies and what possible departments and assets may likely benefit or get hit from adopting this technology.
It is common to think about the cloud in relations to storage or the welter of applications that execute from there like cloud PBX systems and team collaboration platforms. However, a survey undertaken by the combined effort of Knowledge@Wharton and SAP, shows that an astounding 85% of business people they surveyed foresee cloud technology change not only the way they do business but introduce beneficial disruptions throughout their industries.
Based on the data they culled, the researchers from both groups were able to gain insights on the rapid expansion of cloud computing. The externally hosted infrastructure of the cloud provides bedrock for waves of innovation on areas like analytics, mobile technology and data. Also the cloud enables companies to be more responsive to the trends in their respective markets. Cloud technology does allow various configurations and scale after all.
Unfortunately, roughly 50% of the respondents have yet to use the technology on their companies or are only partially using it to impact their work. These business people are scared of jumping on the wagon because of valid reasons like hacking and data theft, the disappearance or destruction of their existing databases, and the challenges of laying down the multiple foundations of this new technology.
Despite the reasonable fears of these individuals, they are still quite confident that their business will come around to implementing the use of cloud storage and cloud based applications on their enterprises. This innovation is understandably disruptive and requires several stages of trials and evaluation before the systems are integrated into the workflow of the businesses.
Currently only a third of the people answering the survey have their feet wet with the cloud; only a fraction of that 38% has fully adopted the system. Most of those who are into cloud computing now only have partial use for the tech. Recent evaluation with their satisfaction of the products leaves much to be desired but those who have fully integrated the cloud into their information infrastructure feel that their investment has been worth it.
Private enterprises may be averse to a full adoption measure of the cloud, the US government, on the other, hand, is steadily moving their computing to cloud based services from the traditional data centers. Figures from federal agencies show that 21% of their offices are well on their way on adopting the technology. If the government is all systems go with their Federal Cloud Computing Initiative, it is only a matter of time before the late adopters come around.
There is so much that cloud computing can offer to a business that it actually costs more to not take advantage of what it has to offer. The cloud enables the collection and processing of big data; what is essentially a massive wall of information can be mined for customer’s spending habits and statistically compute for their preferences. The days of big data are here and much of what it could mean for businesses are riding in the cloud.
Through the ongoing cloud revolution, businesses will be able to become more agile in coming up with solutions to their problems. They will be able to easily scale the amount of information technology they need since they will not be hosting any of the hardware. What matters now is adoption. The sooner businesses are in the cloud, the sooner the synergising within the technology starts.
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